State should say no to 'canned hunts'

February 13, 2006

In an anticipated turn of events, Rep. John Ulmer, R-Goshen, is trying to sidestep the judgment of Indiana Department of Natural Resources director Kyle Hupfer and make "canned hunts" legal in Indiana. In August, Hupfer announced that he would ban the unseemly business of charging wanna-be hunters to corner and shoot confined animals. Hupfer announced that the so-called "preserves" must be shut down by the adjournment in March of the next General Assembly (this one). We said at the time that we hoped the General Assembly would not see Hupfer's deadline as an invitation to overrule the DNR. Obviously it has. Ulmer's bill would let canned hunts continue for seven years. The idea, according to Ulmer, is to allow hunt operators to recoup some of their investment. There is a lot more to consider here than the operators' investment, as Hupfer's evaluation of the issue last year showed. The director, new on the job, needed to respond to the disturbing events in 2004 near Peru, when canned hunt operator Russell Bellar pled guilty to three counts of conspiracy to violate food and drug laws. In Bellar's trial, 60 witnesses, some of them celebrities, described how they paid thousands of dollars to shoot trapped, drugged trophy bucks they had selected from a catalog. Hupfer, rather than judge the industry by the Bellar case, conducted hearings around the state and based his decision on extensive information-gathering. One concern that he addressed directly was the possible health consequences of introducing exotic species into the state, such as wild boar, sheep, elk and zebra, and the risk that they could introduce chronic wasting disease into the native deer population. Lest anyone think this is a dispute between animal protection advocates and hunters, it isn't. Many of the comments that the director collected came from hunters who are disgusted by the unsporting aspects of shooting captive animals at close range, often while they are at feeding stations. This is not a practice that should exist in Indiana for the next seven years, or even the next year. It is not governed now by state law, which is the reason Hupfer stepped in. His judgment was fact-based and sound. It should not be second-guessed at the 11th hour by the General Assembly. The House has passed House Bill 1349. The Senate should vote it down on its merits. In the event that it does not, we hope that Gov. Mitch Daniels will support the judgment of his DNR director and exercise his veto.